A Fistful of Paintballs
Summary:The Greendale Campus becomes a battlefield again with the start of another paintball competition as a mysterious new player makes his presence felt. Meanwhile the study group struggles with a more personal conflict... Plot Neil is being chased through the poorly lit hallways of Greendale College by Mike and his gang who are armed with paintball guns. He soon finds himself at a dead end as Mike catches up to him. Taunting him, Mike fails to notice that Annie has appeared behind them. After quickly eliminating Mike's gang she takes thier ammunition leaving Neil a weapon. She ends up having to take out Neil as well when he tries to shoot her in the back. Returning to her hide out in the science lab Annie recalls how this all started. It began with the western themed end of the school year picnic. Dean Pelton anounced that a quick game of Paintball assasin would take place assuring everyone that it would not spiral out of control like last year's. A mascot from "Pistol Patty's Cowboy Creamery", the sponsor of the event, then anouncemed the prize, one hundred thousand dollars. Chaos soon breaks out as the contest begins. Annie's thoughts are then interrupted when the perimeter alarm she had set up is triggered. Abed suddenly appears and he tells her that Jeff wants her to join them as he has a plan which could be mutually benificial. Meanwhile Jeff and Chang are being hunted by the Math club in the library. Finding thmesleves cornered, Chang decides to betray Jeff letting the other side know he is out of ammo. Abed then arrives along with Annie and rescues Jeff although Chang fled during the gunfight. Jeff then tells Annie his plan, hearing a rumor that Pierce has a stockpile of paintball ammo he wants to team up so they can take it from him. They then begin to argue about Pierce as Annie defends his behaviour over the past year and Jeff counters that she's the only one who sees the good in him. The discussion is interrupted with the dramatic appearance of a new player. He begins to fire at them but they all manage to escape. The three of them then ended up being captured at gunpoint by the rest of the study group lead by Britta. They are now working for Pierce who has put a bounty on Jeff's head. They escort them to Camp Hawthrone, a make shift safe haven from the paintball competition set up inside the cafeteria. The trio learns that the new player is called "The Black Rider" and he has been racking up an impressive elimination count. They are all then greeted warmly by Pierce, although Jeff and the others still have reservations about his sincerity. He tells the group that Dean Pelton has more paintball ammunition in his office and wants them to recover it. He trusts only them for the job as he wants to win as a team and split the prize evenly. The study group goes on the mission and Jeff apologizes to Annie for his attitude toward Pierce. Annie confides that she sees the study group as her family and doesn't want to have it broken up. After Jeff reassures her she hears voices in a nearby room and goes to investigate. She finds Chang about to be eliminated by the Greendale cheerleading squad. After using up all her ammo disposing of the squad she grabs Jeff's gun and chases after Chang who had fled the scene. Finding herself in the Anthropology class room she fails to notice The Blck rider sneaking up behind her. Flirting with her, he relieves her of her paintball gun and tells her he'll make her elimination as painless as possible. He shoots her with Jeff's gun and inadvertantly exposes Pierce's treachary, it turns out the ammo he gave Jeff were blanks. Abed and Jeff then show up and chase The Black Rider off. Annie reveals Pierce's betrayal as they head off to join the rest of the study group. The arrive at the Dean's office TBC Charcacter card titles The epsiode introduces each study group memeber-with the exception of Pierce-with a specific playing card title. It is later revealed that the cards used to represent them are the same ones they used to vote on wether or not Pierce could stay in the study group. A unanimous vote was needed with the black cards votes to kick Pierce out of the group. Annie was the only one who voted red. Pierce misunderstands the situation when he walks in on them and assumes it's another activity he's been excluded from. Recurring themes Contnuity: *Neil and Mike return in this episode *Jeff is wearing his cowboy outfit from "Introduction to Statistics" . *The study group deals with Pierce's behaviour from the last few episodes. *Jeff pats Annie on the head, a gesture he's done before in "Debate 109" and later fully explained in the Season 3 episode "Geography of Global Coflict" *Changs tiger striped paintball gun from "Modern Warfare" makes another appearance Meta references: The episode is named after and shot in the style of Sergio Leone spagehtti westerns, most notably the Dollars trilogy. Obvious homages include: *The animated title sequence which is done in the style of the movie "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" *Abed's outfit which is similar to one Clint Eastwood wore as " The Man with no name" *The fire appearing behind Abed when he takes out the Math Club members Running gags: *Pierce puts a bounty on Jeff, the Wanted poster reads "GAY AND ALIVE" Pop culture references Name dropping: *Annie calls Neil "Christina Ricci" when he reaches for a paintball gun : : Category:Season 2 Episodes Category:Episodes